Amid football mania, Manatee High coach investigation played out

Sunday

Aug 11, 2013 at 12:01 AM

As the football team tore through the state undefeated, disgraced assistant coach Rod Frazier's undoing began

By CHRIS ANDERSON chris.anderson@heraldtribune.com

It was almost game time, and the players were starting to get that indomitable football look in their steely high school eyes. Rod Frazier wove through the circle of players gathered in the dressing room, challenging them, cajoling them, his words rising above the rat-a-tat-tat of the drums outside, adding to the electric crackle in the night air.

Frazier was the animated assistant coach on the Manatee High staff last year, the one given the rite of riling up the players before games. On this Friday night, Nov. 16, undefeated Manatee was rated the top high school football team in the nation. Five more wins and Manatee would earn its sixth state championship and first national title in the vaunted history of the program.

"I want to be part of history," Frazier yelled to the players before they went out and crushed St. Petersburg Northeast 65-12.

Around 10 a.m. that morning, Frazier had quietly returned to his position as parent liaison at Manatee High after a one-day investigation into whether he had inappropriately touched female students. The investigation concluded he had not.

Frazier, 35, has since been charged by the State Attorney's Office with seven counts of first degree misdemeanor battery against four former female students and three employees and three counts of interfering with a student's attendance.

He has denied the charges through his attorney, Ed Mulock. On July 26, Frazier resigned from his position in the district and will not return as assistant football coach.

Bradenton Police also have recommended that former Manatee High principal and assistant superintendent Bob Gagnon, former district investigator Debra Horne and assistant principals Gregg Faller and Matthew Kane face charges of failure to report child abuse and lying to police.

The State Attorney's Office has yet to decide whether those individuals will be charged.

Last week Gagnon, Horne and staff attorney Scott Martin were suspended in connection with the school district's investigation into Frazier.

Faller, Kane, Gagnon, Horne and Martin have refused comment.

A big fan

An underlying theme in the Frazier case is whether Manatee High's powerful football program affected the district's investigation into the former assistant coach, contributed to an alleged cover-up and allowed him to allegedly grope students and employees for years without fear of consequence.

Questions arise as to what athletic director and head coach Joe Kinnan may have known about Frazier's behavior. A powerful figure at the school, and well-respected throughout the state, had Kinnan ever heard anything?

Kinnan has not commented on the case, saying "there is nothing to comment on."

Manatee's most ardent fans disagree on the role football plays in the case.

"It has everything to do with football and nothing to do with Joe Kinnan and the coaches," says Manatee assistant coach Steve Gulash.

Others, such as Mulock, say the case has nothing to do with football, and that it just so happens Frazier was an assistant football coach.

In addition to being Frazier's attorney, Mulock is a major Manatee fan. He has been a radio announcer for Hurricane football games since 1988 and has pictures of Frazier's brother -- former Manatee and Nebraska star Tommie Frazier --- on his office wall.

"It seems to have reverted back to a Manatee High football story," Mulock said. "I resent that. This is about accusations against an individual."

Pre-game pep talk

On the morning of Nov. 15, Gulash was among several school employees who provided the names of potential victims and other information about Frazier's behavior to investigator Horne, whose husband, Mike, was a former Manatee High football player.

Among the information Horne was given: A teacher saw Frazier in his office with a female student sitting in his lap.

Gulash said he walked out of the meeting and met with Kane, the assistant principal, in a secretary's office to discuss his meeting with Horne.

"He said, 'We've got to get this behind us, we've got a game tomorrow night,'" Gulash said. "For whatever reason, they felt he needed to be back."

Kinnan said on Nov. 15 he was told by Manatee High principal Don Sauer that Frazier was being placed on paid administrative leave pending the district's investigation.

Kinnan arranged for Cord Graham, the junior varsity coach, to fill in at that afternoon's practice.

Kinnan said he planned on having Graham coach Friday night as well, but was told by Sauer on the morning of the 16th that Frazier was back at school.

That Kinnan would react this way is not out of character, according to those closest to him. He is not known to lament what is lost but instead focus on the solution.

Before the start of the season last year, Manatee's star running back, Trevon Walters, was hit late during a drill in practice and injured his hip. He wasn't moving his leg and Kinnan feared he would be out for the year.

As Walters was being removed from the field by ambulance, Kinnan told the team that late hits can cost 10 yards in penalties.

Inside his office after practice Kinnan never mentioned Walters' name until an update came from the hospital an hour later. It wasn't for lack of concern -- he was focused on finding Walters' replacement.

Each Wednesday afternoon during the football season last year, a guest speaker addressed the Manatee players in the school's media center.

It was called "Character Development."

On Dec. 5, two days before a state semifinal game against St. Thomas Aquinas -- one of the biggest games in school history -- the guest speaker was Gagnon, the former Manatee principal.

Gagnon was a big fan of Manatee High football, and you could often find him on the sidelines during games.

"On the sidelines I don't think he was an administrator," former Manatee High counselor Christina Conley said. "I think he thought he was coaching."

Gene Gallo, Bradenton's vice mayor and former president of the Manatee football booster club, remembers seeing Gagnon on the field at halftime during last year's playoff win on the road in Fort Pierce, and discussing the game with him.

"He traveled with the team," Gallo said. "He was on the field every game. Kane was the same way and probably Faller, too. He was a football fan."

Gagnon has a football background and played one season at Southern Connecticut State University in 1989, according to the school. He was a defensive player who recorded 65 tackles on a 3-7 team.

Faller is from DePaul, N.J., and also played football. In 1986, he was a 6-foot-4, 205-pound quarterback and was part of the recruiting class at West Virginia that included Major Harris.

Harris became the starter and led the Mountaineers to the national championship game in 1988 against Notre Dame. Faller, meanwhile, transferred to Southern Connecticut State, and was on the roster in 1989 with Gagnon, but the school has no statistics for him.

By 1995, both Gagnon and Faller were employed at the Lake County Boys Ranch, a school for disadvantaged kids in Altoona.

Gagnon's brother, Bill, was head coach at nearby Umatilla High, and Gagnon and Faller were both assistant coaches there.

When Gagnon became principal at Manatee in 2007, he soon brought in Faller to serve as assistant principal. During Gagnon's tenure as principal, the football team reached the state championship game twice -- winning in 2011 -- and the state semifinals once.

"These people believe they created our football team and they were the reason we were successful," Gulash said. "They felt for some reason they were the people running the football program."

Focused on football

After Frazier's return to school Nov. 16, he remained as an on-campus employee until the police began an investigation Feb. 7. He was placed on paid administrative leave the following day.

According to a police report, a school employee claimed Frazier touched her chest area in December 2012 -- a month after his return to school -- and incidents of inappropriate behavior reportedly went back to 2006.

Several people interviewed by the Herald-Tribune said Frazier was often seen with girls in his office or riding around with them on a golf cart, and that it was common knowledge around school.

Kinnan, however, said he did not know of any unusual behavior by Frazier and that he was not his supervisor at school, Faller was. Most of the time when he saw him it was at football practice.

Gallo, who has said he wants his ashes buried at midfield of the Manatee High football stadium named in Kinnan's honor, has known Kinnan for more than 40 years.

He said Kinnan is so unusually focused on football, especially during playoff time, that it is possible he may not have been aware even if someone had mentioned it to him casually.

"Well, I think that's probably the first thing that comes to people's minds, and Joe Paterno will be an example that will make people think that way," Gallo said. "You're still reading it in the paper that Joe Paterno did see things, so people say, 'How could he not know?'"

"Knowing Joe (Kinnan) personally, he could have not known and probably didn't know because if he knew he would have stopped it. Rod would have not been coaching."

Said Gulash: "If there was any doubt in my mind that anyone on the coaching staff had any knowledge or helped cover it up, I would have resigned immediately."

The most animated

Considering Manatee won its first three playoff games last year by a combined 172-19, Frazier wasn't necessarily needed back from a coaching standpoint. The Hurricanes would have easily won without him.

Kinnan called all plays for Manatee games -- there were 100. He would hold a placard in front of his mouth, so no one could see him talking, and say the number of the play to Frazier, who would be standing next to him.

Frazier, a running backs coach, would signal in the number of the play to the players on the field by holding up a large flashcard.

The offensive skill players would then look at wristbands to see the number and the corresponding play that was called. The same routine happened often during practices.

During the pre-game routine at home, usually around 7:15 p.m., Frazier would always meet the players and give them a pep talk while the other coaches were in their office.

During the game Frazier was easily the most animated of the coaches. After each touchdown Frazier would run out onto the field and chest-bump the players. Considering this, it would have been noticeable were Frazier not at a game.

Kinnan said he thought Frazier, a former Manatee and University of Florida running back who had been coaching at the school since 2001, had the potential to be a head coach one day.

Gulash thinks Gagnon wanted Frazier to be the next head coach if Kinnan ever stepped aside.

"They felt he was the greatest coach on earth, but there's not a single coach that makes the team great," Gulash said. "The players make the team great and the community makes the players great."

'All about football'

The district reopened its investigation into Frazier in January after a girl wrote a letter to Manatee High officials alleging inappropriate behavior.

In an interview with the Herald-Tribune, the girl said Frazier grabbed her inappropriately 10 times, sent her more than 250 texts and that she was in his school office more than 100 times, often seen by administrators, employees and resource officers.

The girl said she thought Frazier was able to have the opportunity to do these things for one reason.

"I don't think it has anything to do with him being a parent liaison," she said. "It's because he is a football coach."

Her father agreed.

"He is Tommie Frazier's brother," he said. "They do not want that kind of negativity on the football team.

"If you ever drive by Manatee do you see any tennis courts anywhere? Do you see a baseball diamond anywhere? Every other school in the county has those things. Manatee doesn't. Manatee is all about football."

Barclay Kirkland, a local dentist, said he witnessed Frazier touching girls during meets when Frazier coached weightlifting.

"I guarantee you, there are people who won't come here if our name was put in the paper against Frazier," he said. "It's football. It all has to do with football."

But Gallo says it is wrong to view the case as a football issue.

"That's one of the things some of us in the booster club have been discussing," Gallo said. "They keep talking about tying it into the football program, but he was a parent liaison and the things he allegedly has done were to students and employees.